Driver Remains in Danger : Motor racing: Accident in Ohio race leaves Parnelli Jones’ 22-year-old son, Page, unconscious and in intensive care.

Second-generation race driver Page Jones remained unconscious Monday night in the intensive care unit of a Dayton, Ohio, hospital after suffering a skull fracture during a race Sunday in Rossburg, Ohio.

Jones, 22, son of 1963 Indianapolis 500 winner Parnelli Jones, was leading the sprint car portion of the U.S. Auto Club’s 4-Crown Nationals at Eldora Speedway when his car apparently went up on two wheels along a concrete wall and began cartwheeling.

Witnesses said that when the car stopped rolling, it was on its side, with Jones’ head exposed to oncoming traffic. A trailing car, driven by Dave Darland, crashed into Jones’ car. Jones’ helmet was split from the impact.

The accident occurred on lap 13 of a 30-lap race that Jones had led from the start.

He was airlifted to Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, where a relative said Monday that his vital signs appeared good, although he remained on a respirator and in a coma. Jones also has a broken shoulder and collarbone and back injuries.

His parents, Parnelli and Judy Jones, and his brother, P.J., also a race driver, flew to his bedside Sunday night. P.J., who has been testing Dan Gurney’s new Toyota Indy car this year, had driven in a truck race Saturday night in Tucson, Ariz., and was flying his plane home when a family friend called from Eldora with the news of Page’s accident. Parnelli was in Utah vacationing, and Judy was driving to Ojai.

P.J. contacted his parents. Judy turned around and headed for LAX, where she caught a plane to Phoenix to meet him and they flew to Utah in Vince Granatelli’s private jet, picked up Parnelli and went on to Dayton.

Page, whose home is in Rolling Hills, has been driving in the USAC midget, sprint car and Silver Crown series this year in the Midwest while living in Indianapolis with Mike Bliss, 1993 Silver Crown champion. He stands fifth in national midget standings.

Jones had been testing Busch Grand National cars in hopes of joining the NASCAR series and had been racing midgets and sprint cars while biding his time. This year, he has won five midget and two sprint car main events.

Last year, driving mostly on the USAC midget circuit, he won 16 main events, including the Belleville Nationals, the biggest race of the year. In last year’s 4-Crown Nationals at Eldora, he drove in the midget race and finished second. He scored four of his 16 victories at Ventura, where he began his career at 11 driving go-karts.

Page first attracted attention as a potential driver when he was 14 and won the Ventura County dirt track go-kart championship. The next year he won the Western States title. In the fall of 1989, Page was the youngest of six Americans selected to race in the Soviet Union, where he won one of two kart races won by the Americans.

He moved up to USAC midgets in 1990 and in 1991 had one streak during which he won six consecutive races in the western regional series. At Cajon Speedway in El Cajon, he became the first USAC driver to win a three-quarter midget and full midget main event on the same program. Later that season, he repeated the feat at Ventura Raceway.

He also drove in the Barber Saab series for open-wheel, open-cockpit cars in hopes of getting an Indy car ride. He had three second-place finishes and placed fourth in the standings. After finishing the series, Jones drove an Indy Lights car in the season finale at Laguna Seca where he ran as high as fourth before brake failure forced him to slow down.

Jones returned to Barber Saab in 1992 and won three races, finishing third in the series.

The highlight of his 1992 season occurred at Del Mar, where he won a Barber Saab race the same day P.J. won the IMSA GT main event.

“Being so close to home with all our friends and family around made it extra special when both of us won that day,” Page said later.

When his weight approached 200 pounds, Jones switched his priority from open-wheel cars to preparing for a career in NASCAR stock cars.

“I kept growing and finally I realized that my size was going to work against me if I wanted to drive an Indy car or Formula One,” he said earlier this year.